The Invisible Female & the Invisible Father: Under-representation in 200 Best-selling Children's Picture Books, a 2019 Update

Psychology

Abell, Madeline

Perry, Allison

Yan, Cathy

Mykol, Hamilton (Mentor)

English

This content analysis of children’s picture books is a replication, two decades later, of two published studies by Drs. Hamilton and Anderson and two students. They examined the 200 top-selling picture books of 2001 and found that male to female ratios for pictures, title characters, and main characters, as well as the roles and behaviors of the sexes, showed little to no change compared to books from the previous few decades. They also analyzed a new variable—the portrayal of fathers. They predicted, and found, that fathers were both under-represented and stereotyped. In this study, we analyzed 200 best-sellers of 2019, predicting a degree of improvement since 2001. But males still greatly outnumber females, and stereotyped roles and behaviors for females in general and fathers in particular still dominate. The implications of our findings are important, as picture books are influential in the lives of young children.